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Top 5 Takeaways from #MME17

Marketing transformation is truly a marathon, and all modern marketers know that at the very core of success is education.

Our team at Simantel had the opportunity to attend Oracle’s Modern Customer Experience in Las Vegas last week, where we continued learning about engaging customers through personalized experiences. And if you were keeping an eye on the conference hashtag on Twitter, you know even that was difficult to keep up with. Here are some of our favorite tweets.

If you weren’t able to attend or spend much time on Twitter, that’s ok. You’re in luck, because we’re here to keep you updated and share our key takeaways; great reminders and ideas for any marketer making their way through this technology heavy landscape.

Takeaway 1: Technology alone won’t solve your problems.

I just spent the past 72 hours at a marketing technology conference and my number one take away isn’t about purchasing a new piece of software. Why? Because every success story we heard had a story behind it. Besides executive buy-in, each story had a few things in common – there was a keen strategy, relevant messaging and timely delivery.
Ultimately what we want to do is build the relationship so well that they aren’t just a customer, but a brand advocate. Watch full Quick Take video Building a Brand Experience.

Takeaway 2: Anyone in your company can deliver a great customer experience.

Delivering a modern customer experience was the theme this year. Mark Hurd, CEO of Oracle, gave a great example of this when he told us about his car rental experience. It was not good. Watch Mark’s full speech.

To help improve customer experiences, Oracle built a suite of technology products. There are data products, marketing products and commerce products that work seamlessly to carry your customer through an amazing experience.

However, even with integrated technology, it comes down to people. For example, the greeter at the event was deemed on Twitter as “the hardest working man at the show.” He even had his own hashtag and users proclaimed, “give this man a raise.”

Takeaway 3: Our customers are inundated with marketing.

The times, they are a changing! In 1994, the first banner ad had an average open rate of 44 percent. Today, the average click through rate is 0.4 percent, according to a Google Display Benchmark study. The best way to combat this competitive landscape is to entertain. But that’s not it, you must entertain the right audience.

At Simantel, we always say that Marketing Automation isn’t B2B or B2C, it’s B2P – business to people. At the end of the day, we are marketing to real people. People that are a lot like us. Marketers can tailor messaging by being entertaining, participating in their customer’s communities and being on trend.

Takeaway 4: Data can be your best friend…or your worst enemy.

Everyone is talking about data these days. Why? Because it allows us to know the customer. It gives us insights into what they need and want. But most importantly, it tells us how to help them.

The problem is there are too many companies that can’t wrangle their data. It’s hard and it’s scary. Less than one percent of the world’s data is actually analyzed, according to The Guardian. But if you’re still chasing down data, you’re not being effective. You are doing your customers a disservice. Taking the reins of your data will allow you to create a more personalized customer experience.

Takeaway 5: Your marketing automation team does more than send emails.

Sage had one of the best presentations at the conference, discussing how to build a global marketing automation team. They showcased how to use Oracle Eloqua to build a solid workflow process that keeps their global teams happy.
In the day-to-day work, it’s not often we stop and realize how many things a marketing automation team has to consider as they launch amazing campaigns. Customers want integrated marketing and great customer experiences, but that takes work.
Sage put up a slide that detailed all the attributes of a marketing automation team:

Newsletter – an email blast to predetermined list sent on a regular basis.

Event – a physical event which requires invitations and registration

Webinar – a live online event which requires invitations and registration

Demand generation – an email series to create demand and build a pool of prospects

Nurture journey – an email series to nurture known prospects along the buying cycle, including onboarding and cross-selling

Landing page – a standalone landing page with or without a form

Transactional – a single email that needs to be sent for legal reasons

Campaign response upload – record a contact’s external activity in Eloqua and Salesforce

Basic email – a simplified email blast to a predetermined list sent just once

Eloqua engage template – get an email template created in Eloqua Engage for salespeople to send

Change request – if you need something changed on an existing campaign

Bug – if something is broken

Help – if you simply have a question or need some guidance

Other – if none of the other categories work for you

Regardless of tactic, amazingly talented people are essential. If you don’t have a team of your own to make it happen, this is where a partner can help. If you’re an Eloqua user looking for support, you’re in luck!

Learn more about how we approach marketing automation to achieve one-to-one marketing.